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Once you've made a record with Rick Rubin, where do you go from there? If you're gypsy punks Gogol Bordello, you go to Rubin's right-hand man.

"We're going to be working with Andrew Sheps," who worked as an engineer on Gogol Bordello's last album, Trans-Continental Hustle, bandleader Eugene Hütz tells Rolling Stone. "He did all those records with Rick – System of a Down and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We just have a great chemistry."

Gogol Bordello's forthcoming studio album has a working title of Pura Vida Conspiracy and a projected release of May 2013. Although Hütz is originally from the Ukraine and formed Gogol Bordello in New York City, the group has a new home away from home, where fans will be getting a preview of the new tunes.

"We are right now in South America," says Hütz. "I basically officially finished writing the new album and I just sent out demos to all the band. We are going to go on the road and test-drive it in South America. South America is becoming one of the new priorities."

Coming off the highest-charting album of their career (Hustle peaked at number 62 on the U.S. album charts), Pura Vida Conspiracy is shaping up potentially to be Gogol Bordello's commercial breakthrough. Hütz plans to put to use what he learned from Rubin on the forthcoming album, which should include such songs as "We Who Dig Deep Enough," "Gypsy Autopilot" and "1+1=1."

"The album, I'm super-excited about it, because the last time, we worked with Rick Rubin, and that was a great school. And now I feel a lot of what we accomplished during that period kind of went into our 'cooker,' and only more developed by this time. This record will show the band getting stronger and more precise as the music gets more adventurous. I'm pretty psyched about this."

Hütz is excited about how well he and his bandmates are currently gelling musically, which bodes well for Pura Vida Conspiracy: "The band is like a wild, galloping horse now. As a composer, anything I have in mind, they can basically lay it out with Gogol Bordello. I think rhythmically, it's gotten a lot broader."

In addition to Gogol Bordello's aforementioned South America tour dates, a pair of Canadian dates and a lone San Francisco gig are planned for year's end. However, Hütz promises to extensively promote Pura Vida Conspiracy the only way he and his bandmates know how. "It's going to be massively supported by touring. Of course – that's what we do!"